Brooke Weston

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Year 7s get to grips with drawing

Mr Procter’s Year 7 class have been studying faces and drawing self-portraits during art lessons this term. The students first studied facial proportions then looked at the tonal techniques and expressions typically used by artists to make their drawings seem more lifelike.

The next stage was to take a full-face photograph of each other, trace it on a lightbox and then add in tones and watercolours to create their finished piece.

Mr Procter said: ‘I’ve been giving a demonstration on how to mix flesh tones from simple colours. The colour we use most of all is burnt sienna because you can water it down to produce a soft colour or it can also be used for deeper flesh tones. It gives students a taster watercolour technique.

‘Most of our projects take about 12 weeks. Everything in art always starts off with observational work. The students always look at a theme or photograph and draw it as accurately as they possibly can because that is the foundation of all the art schools. On top of that they bring their creativity in to create a really personal portrait of themselves.’